“Twitcher” is previously unpublished: “twitcher” is a slang term for a bird watcher – something I only discovered, serendipitously, straight after I’d finished the story under a different title.

DAVID TALLERMAN is the author of the comic fantasy novels Giant Thief, Crown Thief and Prince Thief, as well as the absurdist Steampunk graphic novel Endangered Weapon B: Mechanimal Science. David’s short science fiction, fantasy and horror has appeared in over sixty markets, including Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Nightmare and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. He can be found online at Writing On The Moon and the Writing On The Moon blog.

“Lester turned the focus dial the barest fraction, looked wistfully at the nest one last time and lay the binoculars down. The Plummers would wait. They’d have to. The parents were healthy, the eggs
undamaged. They had plenty of food nearby, and that was more than he could say himself. They could manage on their own for a few hours.

No one knew they were there; he hadn’t told, not Margie, not anyone.
It was him and them and God, no other players at this table. So they could get by for a few hours while he sorted himself out with the few things he’d need to last the crucial coming days.”